When it comes to keeping a high profile in the midst of adversity, Shelly Silver has no peer.

With an Albany ethics panel now poring over a report on the taxpayer-funded coverup Silver engineered to protect Assemblyman Vito Lopez from sexual-harassment charges, you might think the Assembly speaker would tone it down.

The politician who appointed Lavine to that ethics job? Shelly Silver.

Notice a pattern?

Never mind that Silver directed $103,000 in taxpayer funds to settle two sexual-harassment cases against Lopez, the former Democratic boss of Brooklyn. In Albany, Shelly is the one who decides whether Shelly gets in trouble.

But Lavine should know better than to take Silver-fueled money right as he is considering Silver’s case.

Apparently he doesn’t. “This is a very common practice done in the New York State Assembly,” says Lavine, “and I very much value the friendship and the leadership of the speaker.”